{"id":12697,"date":"2016-01-20T08:00:27","date_gmt":"2016-01-20T16:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/?p=12697"},"modified":"2016-01-20T08:33:29","modified_gmt":"2016-01-20T16:33:29","slug":"kensington-brewing-opening-doors-january-23","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/2016\/01\/20\/kensington-brewing-opening-doors-january-23\/","title":{"rendered":"Kensington Brewing opening doors January 23"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"kensington_01\"<\/a>Last week, Green Flash Brewing Company<\/a> <\/strong>founder Mike Hinkley<\/strong> wondered if the current climate of the beer industry left room for newly established small breweries to grow into the next generation of large brewing companies distributing beer nation- and world-wide. It\u2019s a good question, but hardly the end-game imagined by Zack Knipe<\/strong>, co-owner of Kensington Brewing<\/a><\/strong> (5839 Mission Gorge Road, Grantville)<\/em>, a company that\u2019s been in operation for more than two years but will officially go live with its tasting room and an expanded production schedule on January 23<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Knipe and business partner Andy Rogers<\/strong> have a great deal in common\u2014a love of brewing, USD alumni status, jobs in the construction and engineering industry. They are also passionate about craft beer\u2019s ability to help build community and friendships, and consider that as much a goal as producing quality beer. They say they\u2019re not interested in growing faster if it means taking away from the ability to have a meaningful connection with their customers, something they say has been key to their early growth. Knipe says he knows most of his customers by name.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
A lounge of antiquities precedes Kensington Brewing’s tasting room<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

His ability to keep everyone straight may be hindered if Kensington Brewing\u2019s tasting room takes off. That space is adjacent to the three-barrel, direct-fire system-equipped brewery, and outfitted with old barrels reconfigured into seating vessels. The recent El Ni\u00f1o storms flooded the room, but it has been restored so that newcomers can enjoy it to its fullest during Saturday\u2019s grand opening, which will take place from 12 to 8 p.m.<\/strong> After that, the tasting room will be open Thursdays and Fridays, 4 to 8 p.m.<\/strong> and Saturdays, 12 to 8 p.m.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Now\u2019s as good a time to address the elephant in the room. Kensington Brewing is located in Grantville, not Kensington. While the duo endeavored to find a nice spot on Adams Avenue to call home, such a space was hard to come by. So, they shared a warehouse in the Mission Gorge area with friends at The WestBean Coffee Roasters<\/strong><\/a> for two years before moving to their current location in the same industrial park that houses brew-it-yourself spot, Citizen Brewers<\/strong><\/a>. Their entire facility is 1,600 square feet and should allow Kensington Brewing to produce 105 barrels of beer in its first year of operation.<\/p>\n

\"kensington_03\"<\/a>When the tasting room opens, the tap list will reflect Knipe\u2019s and Rogers\u2019 affinity for Old World styles exhibiting malt and hop balance. The sextet of initial offerings will include an apricot wheat ale (5.4% alcohol-by-volume), brown ale (5.2%), coffee stout (made using WestBean product, coming in at 7.4%), English-style India pale ale (8.3%), double IPA (9.2%) and imperial stout (7.4%).<\/p>\n

In five-to-ten years, Knipe and Rogers hope to have moved into a building within Kensington proper brewing off a 10- or 15-barrel system. For now, they\u2019re doing just fine. And as for the far-off future, Knipe says his idea of long-term vision involves his two sons taking over Kensington and keeping it going.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week, Green Flash Brewing Company founder Mike Hinkley wondered if the current climate of the beer industry left room for newly established small breweries to grow into the next generation of large brewing companies distributing beer nation- and world-wide. It\u2019s a good question, but hardly the end-game imagined by Zack Knipe, co-owner of Kensington […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[367,368,369,1],"tags":[1353,2394,376,442,1502,1495,390,1798,1462,884,1010,2391,346,1503,1504,1439,2393,1637,2392,2395],"class_list":{"0":"post-12697","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-beer-events","7":"category-beer-news","8":"category-beer-styles","9":"category-san-diego-beer-beverage-news","10":"tag-sdbeer","11":"tag-andy-rogers","12":"tag-beer","13":"tag-brandon-hernandez","14":"tag-citizen-brewers","15":"tag-coffee","16":"tag-craft-beer","17":"tag-double-ipa","18":"tag-grantville","19":"tag-green-flash","20":"tag-ipa","21":"tag-kensington","22":"tag-mike-hinkley","23":"tag-mission-gorge","24":"tag-mission-valley","25":"tag-san-diego","26":"tag-west-bean","27":"tag-west-coaster","28":"tag-westbean","29":"tag-zack-knipe","30":"entry","31":"has-post-thumbnail"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","wps_subtitle":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pdtr4y-3iN","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12697\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}